I saw some small work-tables worth at least 600 dollars (120 pounds).

The baskets and carpets, made from the bamboo, are also remarkably beautiful.
They are, however, far behind-hand in gold or silver work, which is generally heavy and tasteless; but then again, they have attained great celebrity by their porcelain, which is remarkable not only for its size, but for its transparency.

It is true that vases and other vessels four feet high are neither light nor transparent; but cups and other small objects can only be compared to glass for fineness and transparency.

The colours on them are very vivid, but the drawings very stiff and bad.
In the manufacture of silks and crape shawls, the Chinese are unsurpassable; the latter especially, in beauty, tastefulness, and thickness, are far preferable to those made in England or France.
The knowledge of music, on the other hand, is so little developed, that our good friends of the Celestial Empire might almost, in this respect, be compared to savages--not that they have no instruments, but they do not know how to use them.

They possess violins, guitars, lutes (all with strings or wires), dulcimers, wind instruments, ordinary and kettle-drums, and cymbals, but are neither skilled in composition, melody, nor execution.